KY House Speaker subpoenaed to testify about GOP attempt to overturn election

On Friday, lawyers for Representative-Elect Jim Glenn subpoenaed Kentucky House Speaker-Elect David Osborne to testify regarding his attempt to overturn the results of the election. Glenn made national news when he won Kentucky’s 13th House District by just a single vote in November.

Outgoing state representative defeated by Glenn, DJ Johnson, requested a recanvass of the election results which verified Jim Glenn as the winner. Despite the recanvass and certification of results by a bipartisan Board of Elections, Johnson has requested that Kentucky Republicans overturn the results and declare him the winner.

House Speaker-Elect Osborne has refused to commit to seating Representative-Elect Jim Glenn in January telling the Associated Press it is “solely the prerogative of the House of Representatives to seat a member” and that he “cannot commit” to how the Republican-dominated House of Representatives will vote on the matter.

The Osborne subpoena identifies specific questions about Osborne’s involvement with the election challenge and the improper use of taxpayer resources to overturn an election. The subpoena also demands that Osborne produce all payment records for the two lawyers filing the Contest for losing candidate DJ Johnson. Lawyers for Glenn suspect that public money may have been authorized by Osborne to fund work on Johnson’s case.

“The desperate Republican power grab is a nation-wide trend, but here in Kentucky they’ve taken it to a whole new level,” said spokeswoman for the Kentucky Democratic Party, Marisa McNee. “With an unpopular and controversial governor at the helm, Kentucky Republicans have launched attacks on the media, threatened Supreme Court Justices who rule against them, and now they are attempting to use taxpayer resources to flat out steal a state house seat. It’s appalling.”